Duty guns to race guns: TJ's custom gunworks

American Handgunner, Sept-Oct, 2008 by Darryl Bolke

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Although TJ has many wild inventions and designs, his real fame has come due to his exceptional action and trigger work, considered by many to be unequaled in the industry. TJ has old school values and takes great pride in his work and each job he performs. While he has a good machine shop, he still does most of his work with hand tools, like craftsman of years past. He is also a one-man shop with no apprentices or helpers--all the work is all done by TJ himself.

TJ has earned my loyalty by delivering, and not just talking about it. I've been using TJ Custom Gunworks for many of my pistolsmithing needs for most of my almost 20-year law enforcement career. TJ worked on most of my older duty guns, and built all of my competition guns when I was active in competitive speed shooting games. I won a lot of trophies thanks to TJ's work, and one of his custom P220s was responsible for getting me home by winning a gunfight that could have cost a couple of officers their lives.

TJ Jimakas from TJ's Custom Gunworks has always been known not only for his superb action and reliability work on duty-type weapons, but also for his very unconventional, wild and crazy handgun creations.

Many of his pistol creations look like they should be in a surrealism art gallery or at an eccentric inventors convention rather then a gun shop. I have always felt TJ's guns were like custom Harley Davidson Motorcycles. They run the gamut from basic and black, to works of art. While I generally lean toward his "ugly" duty-type guns, I also appreciate his wild guns.

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Real World

Since TJs stuff works in the real world, I asked him if he felt a duty-type pistol is really suitable for, or can be converted for serious competition shooting? TJ seems to think so, and just look at these two pistols here, a Sig Sauer P226 and a Beretta 92FS, for some ideas.

Once plain-Jane beat-up black duty guns, they are now fully compensated, race-competition guns. Like my old agency's Harley Davidson Police motors, after years of police service they are resold into the private sector and turned into incredible customs. These guns are widely available as "police trade-ins" and are often carried a lot and shot a little. They make a great platform for building into "fun" guns for competitive and recreational shooting. Many professional gun carriers--me included--often forget shooting is also fun and we don't always have to be "tactical."

Barrel Thingies

Is a compensator the same as a flash suppressor or a muzzle break? Actually no, as dictated by the function, design and performance of the part. A "flash suppressor" or "muzzle break" is designed to reduce the flash signature exiting the muzzle of a gun when fired, with the intent to help hide the shooter's location. In vast contrast, a "compensator" is designed primarily for competition shooters with the intent to reduce muzzle rise, typically actually the visible flash signature of the firearm. Ever seen that Glock advertisement with the jets of flame shooting out of the to 9 of the slide near the muzzle?

[ILLUSTRATIONS OMITTED]

Functionally, what a compensator actually does is trap a portion of the gases following the bullet as it exits the barrel (what you would normally see as the flash exiting the barrel when firing), venting a good portion of these gasses upward because the compensator has a closed bottom like a cup. The gases can only exit upward to escape (depending on the design), driving the bottom of the compensator down, counter-acting muzzle lift. Essentially, the gun's muzzle doesn't "flip" up as much, and you have more of a rearward recoil rather then an upward bounce.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

TJ has been designing and prototyping various compensators for well over 20 years, and he invented his "TRI-MAG" five-port/three-chamber compensator design back in 1988 for 1911-type pistols. I've been shooting a TJ-compensated 1911 since the early 1990s and I can personally attest how it changes the recoil characteristics of my 1911, allowing it to be much more manageable.

TJ has also modified his TRI-MAG compensator design to fit Beretta handguns as well. Along with TJ's two-port Sig-Comp, he has transformed these two pistol designs into fully compensated competition guns.

The Specifics

The first pistol is a Sig Sauer P226 chambered in .357 Sig. TJ chose the .357 Sig because of the extra gas flash signature typical of the .357 Sig cartridge. This would challenge the compensator a great deal, offering a chance to show its full potential due to the increased gas pressure.

Sig Sauer, in partnership with Federal Cartridge Co., developed the .357 Sig cartridge in 1994, based on a .40 S&W case necked down to accept .355" bullets. The .357 Sig is a very accurate, high-velocity cartridge, prefect for long-range pistol shooting.

TJ has incorporated many atypical features on this competition gun, including his proprietary crazy marble anodized frame finish in green and navy, two tone textured/polished stainless slide, custom hand-fabricated small parts with hard chrome finish, including an extended serrated hammer spur, high-bent de-cocker, and huge slide release lever and checkered magazine release button. But the list goes on and on.